Mary Hardin-Baylor University in Belton, Texas has won five DIII national championships since 2017 — the most recent DIII dynasty and the most dominant run in the non-scholarship era. Pete Fredenburg has built a program that recruits Texas high school players with a faith-based identity and develops them through an offensive system that puts up numbers that would be competitive in most FCS leagues. The Cru enter 2026 as the bracket's default favorite and the program that every other DIII contender has built their season around trying to beat.

East Texas Baptist University in Marshall, Texas has been the ASC's most consistent challenger to Mary Hardin-Baylor — appearing in the DIII bracket multiple times and winning the conference title twice. Their program draws from east Texas and the Dallas-Fort Worth exurban corridor, recruiting players with the same faith-first identity that MHB uses while competing with a different offensive system.

Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas has one of DIII football's longest histories and a West Texas identity built on physical play and the region's football culture. The Cowboys draw from central Texas — a pipeline that produces DII-caliber players who choose a faith-based DIII education — and compete with the physical running game that matches Abilene's football tradition. When their offensive line is healthy, they challenge for the ASC title.